What is a Visual Schedule?
Visual schedules are excellent tools in the learning process for people with certain developmental disorders such as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) or Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
These people are usually excellent visual thinkers. They understand and retain better the information presented to them visually.
Visual schedules are based on the sequential presentation of a series of tasks, clear and simplified form, using for this normally pictograms to facilitate the schematic representation without unnecessary additional information.
Visual schedules help these people understand the situations and know what is expected of them, thereby reducing the anxiety that generates the new and unexpected. With visual schedules you help them to anticipate the various events that will happen. Using this type of schedules you help them to give an order to their world and improve aspects of their emotional wellbeing.
What is PictogramAgenda?
PictogramAgenda is a software application that facilitates the generation and use of visual schedules.
PictogramAgenda allows to set up and order a sequence of images to form the visual schedule (agenda).
The application screen is arranged in three parts: at the top are the images loaded orderly and numbered to represent clearly the order of the tasks. The center of the screen needs to be pressed each time you want to move to the next task, showing current image or pictogram in a larger size to highlight. The images of the work already done will be going to the bottom of the screen in reduced size, as a reminder of the tasks performed.
Summary of key features
- Up to 48 pictograms.
- Sample pictograms provided.
- Examining the device for any image file.
- Option to directly download pictograms from ARASAAC and #Soyvisual.
- At any time you can change the order of the remaining tasks by simply dragging the pictogram to its new position.
- Supports portrait and landscape orientation.
- Allows to cross pictograms out, to emphasize the fact that a task is NOT to be performed.
- If needed you can go back to previous pictogram or return to the initial status with all pending tasks.
- You can save and load agendas generated for later use.
- Text (show titles of the pictograms)
- Sound (titles of the pictograms are read with ‘Text to Speech’ functionality)
- Share: option to export agenda files through other apps (eg: email …)
- “Timer” feature: Option to set automatic playing mode for agenda, setting the start time and duration of each pictogram.
- Pictograms may have “memo” notes.
Thanks to:
Martijn van der Kooij, Xavier 83li90, Houda Zekri, ARASAAC, Rubén Velasco, Sergey Tarasevich, Petra Bohland, Alexander Riis, Kasper Lorentzen, Ermanno Iencinella, Ana Mendes, #Soyvisual.